Though it was past ten o’clock and they had avoided the rush hour, the streets were still bustling with people due to the summer holiday.
There were elderly gentlemen and ladies enjoying the cool shade beneath banyan trees, uncles and aunts loudly hawking their goods in front of their shops, and groups of students on their way to youth centers for hobby classes. Together, they made up the lively and bustling Dongshan.
The pair strolled leisurely under the eaves of low, flat-roofed buildings, heading aimlessly forward wherever there was shade to protect them from the sun since they had no particular destination in mind.
The detached Western-style houses exuded a retro charm of the Republic era, and the blooming roses in the yards added a touch of vivacity to their beauty.
"Yiyi, want to stand there for a photo?" Xu Qingfan asked, pointing to a popular photo spot.
The girl shook her head slightly, "I feel like taking photo stickers now."
[If it’s photo stickers, I can take them with my brother!]
"Photo stickers, huh? Let’s look around, I’m sure we’ll find a place nearby," Xu Qingfan said.
Until the widespread adoption of smartphones in 2012, photo stickers were a popular business, so there had to be a shop around Dongshan.
They had plenty of time, and it wasn’t as if they had to take photo stickers right now, so they continued to walk and stop along the way, visiting any interesting buildings they could enter.
After coming out of Spring Garden, Xu Qingfan suddenly fancied the idea of buying a small Western-style house here to experience the lavish lifestyle of the Republican elite who lived in such houses and raised exotic dogs.
"Yiyi, what do you think about buying one of these villas and making it our new secret base if we went to high school here?" Xu Qingfan pointed to a red-brick villa nearby and asked.
Zhang Yiyi didn’t hesitate to shake her head: "No good, we’ve agreed to aim for Licheng Middle School’s high school division!"
There were only two high schools nearby, Pei Middle School and Qi Middle School, and both had relatively high entrance requirements, which Lin Wanning might not meet, so the girl immediately shook her head in refusal.
[Wanning is so good, I can’t leave her behind!]
Zhang Yiyi would never forget the first time she met Lin Wanning, the girl holding her hand and earnestly saying, "Wanning will be Yiyi’s ears in the future." It was the warmest thing she’d heard in her gloomy childhood, along with the time her brother stood up for her.
The most precious memories of her life were made up of the two of them, so for the three of them, one less would not do!
Seeing Zhang Yiyi rarely have her own opinion, Xu Qingfan did not ask for a reason but simply nodded in agreement, "I’ll listen to Yiyi."
"Okay!" The girl beamed with a light smile, pure and flawless like a jasmine flower.
Hand in hand, they walked on until finally, near the department store, they found a photobooth in a photo studio.
After paying and waiting for a moment, they took their turn when a couple emerged from the curtained photo booth area.
"Tsk tsk tsk," Xu Qingfan couldn’t help but click his tongue as he noticed the redness around the couple’s lips.
The guy heard the noise and only dared to lower his head in embarrassment, while the girl, quite bold, glared at Xu Qingfan, seemingly challenging him to try it himself.
However, upon seeing the stunning looks of Xu Qingfan and Zhang Yiyi, she quickly looked away and left with her boyfriend.
Zhang Yiyi scolded her brother with a glance and then led him into the photo booth.
They had taken photo stickers many times before, so once inside, Xu Qingfan simply sat down, leaving Zhang Yiyi to pick out the background images.
Though he had previously taken stickers alone with Xia Xiaoxiao, this was his first time with Zhang Yiyi. He had only done so with Xia Xiaoxiao before, and now Zhang Yiyi was added to the list.
The girl had been quick to choose all the previouis background images until a certain one came up, which stopped her for quite a while—it was a wedding photo with suits and bridal gowns.
Zhang Yiyi sneakily glanced at Xu Qingfan through the reflection of the glass screen, and after confirming he was looking down at his phone, she quickly hit confirm and then switched to the next image.
After a moment, the girl rubbed Xu Qingfan’s arm with her index finger, "Brother, ready now!"
Xu Qingfan was just logging into his Weibo account and saw that his follower count had surged to three million overnight, meaning he had successfully caught the wave of internet traffic.
He put away his phone, looked up with a smile, and said, "Alright, let’s take the photos now."
Their poses were conventional against the first few backdrops: sometimes they made scissor-hand gestures or formed a heart together; in short, the photos all came out mundane and heartwarming.
But when the screen switched to the wedding photo backdrop, Zhang Yiyi’s heart began to pound nervously. She felt awkward looking through the screen at her brother.
If it had just been that, it wouldn’t have been too bad, but when the wedding picture appeared, the machine’s speakers played a proposal tune unexpectedly—"Today You Marry Me."
"My... My hand slipped. It’s a mistake," Zhang Yiyi said, not daring to meet her brother’s eyes, pretending the incident had nothing to do with her.
There was a time limit for each background picture, so they didn’t have long to discuss. The song reached the duet section,
[Listen to me~ hand in hand~ let’s walk together~ create a happy life]
"Let’s just take the picture," Xu Qingfan said with a smile, grasping the girl’s hand and moving in front of the camera.
Zhang Yiyi’s heart raced with nervousness, but she was lucky that having to move and align herself with the screen’s wedding dress and veil distracted her, making her seem less embarrassed.